20th November 2024: Conducting a Systematic Narrative Review in Qualitative Research: A Case Study Using EPPI Reviewer
Wednesday 20th November 2024
12pm
Dustin Hosseini
This session introduces what a systematic narrative review is and how it can be used as part of qualitative research and can be helpful in synthesizing qualitative evidence and addressing research questions. After outlining the differences between a systematic narrative review, systematic review and literature review, I illustrate how I break down a research question to create search strings. I then briefly demonstrate EPPI Reviewer to illustrate how researchers can use it to help them conduct systematic narrative reviews.
Recommended readings
The first paper provides an introduction to conducting systematic narrative reviews and their place within research. Hosseini (2024) and Srinivasa et al. 2020 provide examples of papers using systematic narrative reviews. It's worthwhile looking at the methods/methodologies sections of these papers. Bergdahl et al. (2022) provides the technical 'how to' of conducting a systematic narrative review using the EPPI Reviewer tool, and it's worthwhile looking at this paper before you begin a systematic review or systematic narrative review in earnest.
Turnbull, D., Chugh, R., & Luck, J. (2023). Systematic-narrative hybrid literature review: A strategy for integrating a concise methodology into a manuscript. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 7(1), 100381.
Hosseini, D. D. (2024). Actions for decolonizing higher education in the UK: a systematic narrative review of empirical studies. [pre-print] https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/baqws
Srinivasa, K., Chen, Y., & Henning, M. A. (2020). The role of online videos in teaching procedural skills to post-graduate medical learners: A systematic narrative review. Medical Teacher, 42(6), 689–697. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2020.1733507
Bergdahl, N., Buntins, K., & Bond, M. (2022, September 7). Conducting systematic reviews in the field of educational technology. ALT Conference.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Melissa-Bond-5/publication/363769728_Conducting_systematic_reviews_in_the_field_of_educational_technology_A_workshop_to_get_you_started/links/632d65c44cc5d63f08511ab0/Conducting-systematic-reviews-in-the-field-of-educational-technology-A-workshop-to-get-you-started.pdf
About the speaker
My name is Dustin Hosseini, and I am an Associate Tutor in the School of Education. I am an educator with expertise in digital pedagogy, academic and digital literacies and a deepening understanding of decolonizing education/curricula and praxis, and generative AI literacies. My work sits at the intersections of academic, critical, and digital literacies, learning design, and digital education. I’m a Doctoral candidate in Education at the University of Strathclyde, where my research looks at the decolonial practices of UK higher education practitioners. I am also a co-lead of the University of Glasgow Decolonising the Curriculum Community of Practice.
I have worked in education since 2005 and higher education since 2010. My prior experience has included: teaching English as a foreign language (EFL); teaching academic writing to international students (EAP); developing the academic, research and writing literacies of students of the hard and social sciences; and developing staffs' pedagogic knowledge, information and digital literacies of digital education and learning technologies. My forthcoming publications include:
Hosseini, D.D.*, Bańkowicz, A., Mair, C., Riaz, N., Skipsey, S., Tansley, L., Vincent, M. (forthcoming 2025) ‘Getting to know decoloniality through dialogue: a critical reflection from students and educators,’ The Palgrave Handbook of Decolonizing Educational and Language Sciences, ed. S. Bagga‑Gupta, Palgrave Press. *corresponding author.
Hosseini, D.D. (forthcoming 2025) ’Pernicious ignorance and the marginalisation of third space professionals: reflections on lived experience,’ Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education.
18th December 2024: Making sense of multimodal data - qualitative and post-qualitative approaches
Wednesday 18th December 2024
12pm
Dr Elizabeth Nelson
Creative and arts-based methods are becoming increasingly popular modes of data generation, but there is some confusion about what to do with all the data once back at the desk. This talk outlines a 5-stage approach I used in my PhD research (which used participant made videos and observational videos as well as voice notes, emails and hand-written notes) to offer a way to work with multimodal data so that the analysis is able to retain and pay attention to some complexities of the multimodal forms.
Recommended readings
Law, J. (2007). Making a mess with method. The Sage handbook of social science methodology, 595-606.
MacLure, M. (2013). The wonder of data. Cultural Studies? Critical Methodologies, 13(4), 228-232.
St. Pierre, E. A., & Jackson, A. Y. (2014). Qualitative data analysis after coding. Qualitative inquiry, 20(6), 715-719.
About the speaker
Elizabeth L. Nelson is Lecturer of Multimodal Literacies at the University of Glasgow. Her research examines play and new technologies in the hands of children drawing on historical and literary representations of children’s play and culture to understand experiences of childhood today. She has published on young people’s relationship to digital technologies, historical accounts of play, and creative methodologies in research encounters with children and young people. Her current work focuses on children’s everyday culture, post-digital childhoods and understanding co-presence through sharing picturebooks online and off and digital play.
15th January 2025: Researching Disability: How we are all 'Disability Researchers'
Wednesday 15th January 2024
12pm
Dr Rebecca Wood
In this presentation I will explore the theoretical and methodological implications of conducting research 'on', or 'about', but preferably 'with', disabled people. I will include issues of language and accessibility of methods, and argue further that we should all consider ourselves to be 'disability researchers'.
Recommended reading
Allan, J. (2010) ‘The sociology of disability and the struggle for inclusive education’. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31 (5): pp. 603 – 619.
Gjermestad, A., Skarsaune, S. N., and Bartlett, R. L. (2023) 'Advancing inclusive research with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities through a sensory-dialogical approach'. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 27(1), 40-53.
Pothier, D. and Devlin, R. (2006) (eds) Critical Disability Theory: Essays in Philosophy, Politics, Policy, and Law. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Wood, R. (2019) Inclusive Education for Autistic Children: Helping Children and Young People to Learn and Flourish in the Classroom, London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
About the speaker
Dr Rebecca Wood is a Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education at the University of Glasgow. She is a former teacher and inclusive education practitioner who completed her first degrees at the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, and her PhD at the University of Birmingham, where she was funded by a full-time scholarship. This was followed by an ESRC-funded postdoctoral fellowship at King’s College London and a senior lectureship at the University of East London. Rebecca was project manager of the tri-national Transform Autism Education project, funded by the European Commission, and Principal Investigator of the Autistic School Staff Project, funded by the John and Lorna Wing Foundation. She is currently PI of How I Communicate, also funded by the John and Lorna Wing Foundation. Both her first book, Inclusive Education for Autistic Children, and her second book, an edited volume of which she is lead editor, Learning from Autistic Teachers, are published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Rebecca is @thewoodbug on social media.
19th February 2025: Conducting literature reviews: an example of a scoping review
Wednesday 19th February 2025
12pm
Dr Tore Bernt Sorensen
Literature reviews often form a key component in the research process. Yet, how such literature reviews are undertaken often remains implicit and unclear. After briefly introducing different types of literature reviews, this lecture discusses the processes and outcomes of a scoping review of the anglophone, peer-reviewed literature on teachers, teaching, and globalization (see Sorensen and Dumay 2021).
Recommended readings
Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). “Scoping Studies: Towards a Methodological Framework.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 8(1): 19–32.
Kennedy, M. (2007). “Defining a Literature.” Educational Researcher 36(3): 139–47.
Petticrew, M., & Roberts, H. (2006). Systematic reviews in the social sciences: A practical guide. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sorensen, T.B., & Dumay, X. (2021). "The Teaching Professions and Globalization: A Scoping Review of the Anglophone Research Literature." Comparative Education Review 65(4): 725-749.
About the speaker
Tore Bernt Sorensen is Lecturer in Education at School of Education, University of Glasgow. Tore’s scholarship is characterised by three lines of research: Global education governance, public policy analysis, as well as the teaching profession. Previously, Tore worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Hertie School's Educational Governance Team (Berlin, Germany), Taube Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland), and in Groupe interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Socialisation, l'Education et la Formation (GIRSEF), UC Louvain (Belgium). Recently, Tore was co-editor (w/ Xavier Dumay and Lynn Paine) of World Yearbook of Education 2025. The Teaching Profession in a Globalizing World: Governance, Career, Learning. Among his other publications, two draw especially on literature review methods: The teaching professions and globalization: a scoping review of the anglophone research literature (w/ Xavier Dumay, in Comparative Education Review, 2021) and A European experiment in governing teacher education and training: the case of the Erasmus+ Teacher Academies (w/ Lukas Graf, in Education Inquiry, 2024).
19th March 2025: Problematising the use of interview data in educational research: questioning common assumptions
Wednesday 19th March 2025
12pm
Dr Stephen Parker
This presentation problematises the ways in which interview data are commonly represented and interpreted in educational research. I begin by arguing that there is frequently a lack rigorous analysis of qualitative interview data in published educational research, underpinned by all too common naïve, romantic assumptions about research interviews. I explore the need for adopting analytical approaches to interview data that neither takes research participants’ accounts simply at face nor dismisses them as intelligible only through the imposition of theory. I argue for (re-)recognising that interview data can have multiple potential meanings, none of which can be taken as given. In doing so, I draw on research traditions and approaches that emphasise the need for in-depth analysis of interview qualitative data.
Recommended reading
Hammersley, M. (2008). Questioning Qualitative Inquiry: Critical Essays. London: SAGE.
Silverman, D. (2017). How was it for you? The Interview Society and the irresistible rise of the (poorly analyzed) interview. Qualitative Research, 17(2), 144-158.
Taylor, C. (1985). Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). Toward a social praxaeology: The structure and logic of Bourdieu’s sociology. In P. Bourdieu & L. J. D. Wacquant, An invitation to reflexive sociology (pp. 1–59). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Whitaker, E. M., & Atkinson, P. (2019). Authenticity and the interview: a positive response to a radical critique. Qualitative Research, 19(6), 619-634. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794118816885
About the speaker
Stephen Parker is a lecturer in education. He has interests in the sociology of education, social theory, the sociology of research practices, policy analysis, higher education, social justice, and bringing these all together.
16th April 2025: Working with cross-sectional datasets: Harmonising 20 years’ of APiL survey data for trend analysis
Wednesday 16th April 2025
12pm
Professor Ellen Boeren & Dr Zyra Evangelista
Although not longitudinal, harmonised repeated cross-sectional surveys can be used for trend analysis. Using the Adult Participation in Learning (APiL) Survey from 2002-2023 as an example, we discuss the steps, challenges, and considerations in harmonising cross-sectional microdata. The presentation includes a technical demonstration in SPSS.
Recommended reading
Darlington, F., Norman, P., & Ballas, D. (2014). Working Paper - Exploring changing social structures and health using the Health Survey for England: A technical note on the creation and analysis of a time-series dataset in SPSS. http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/77494/
McManus, S., (2020). Using repeated cross-sectional surveys to measure trends in rates of self-harm. In Sage Research Methods Cases: Medicine and Health. SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529733679
Pitchforth J., Fahy K., Ford T., Wolpert M., Viner R. M., & Hargreaves, D. S. (2019). Mental health and well-being trends among children and young people in the UK, 1995–2014: Analysis of repeated cross- sectional national health surveys. Psychological Medicine, 49, 1275–1285. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718001757
UK Data Service (2015). Analysing change over time: Repeated cross sectional and longitudinal survey data. https://dam.ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/455362/changeovertime.pdf
About the speakers
Ellen Boeren is Professor in Education at the University of Glasgow. She is interested in the wider field of post-compulsory education and training, skills development, and lifelong learning metrics. She is currently PI of an ESRC project on the statistical evidence base on adult learning in the UK and Ireland and sits on the European Commission’s Expert Network on Adult Education and Training.
Zyra Evangelista is a Research Associate at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. Zy’s primary research interest is in LGBT+ psychology. They are particularly interested in anti-LGBT+ prejudice, social identities, and improving LGBT+ equality globally. Their PhD research focused on improving LGBT+ inclusion in Higher Education. It was supported by a Newton Fund grant and involved a mixed-method, cross-country comparative assessment of the campus climate for LGBT+ university students in the UK and Philippines. For their work, Zy was awarded the Prize for Research Work on Gender Identity and Sexual orientation Issues to Combat Discrimination by Padova University CUG (May 2022), shortlisted for the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences Impact Award (April 2022), a finalist at the University of Glasgow 3-minute thesis competition (March 2022) and was Highly Commended for the PsyPAG Rising Researcher Award (2020).
30th April 2025: Social Network Analysis in Educational Research
Wednesday 30th April 2025
12pm
Dr Thomas Cowhitt
Relationships surround us, facilitating or frustrating the ambitions of individuals. This lecture will introduce you to Social Network Analysis, a methodology that offers theoretical perspectives and practical tools to account for relational networks. We will cover methods for collecting relational data, basic descriptive network statistics, and three different types of network visualisations.
Recommended reading
Freeman, L. (2004). The development of social network analysis. A Study in the Sociology of Science, 1(687), 159-167. (Introduction Only)
Daly, A. (2010). Social Network Theory and Educational Change. Harvard Education Press. (Great introductory book with edited chapters on relevant topics for education researchers)
Cowhitt, T., Greany, T., & Downey, C. (2023). Storytelling with Networks: Realizing the explanatory potential of network diagrams through the integration of qualitative data. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22, 16094069231189369. (Reading on the visualisation of networks)
Carolan, B. V. (2013). Social network analysis and education: Theory, methods & applications. Sage Publications. (Good reference resource for those that want to learn more)
Froehlich, D. E., Van Waes, S., & Schäfer, H. (2020). Linking quantitative and qualitative network approaches: A review of mixed methods social network analysis in education research. Review of research in education, 44(1), 244-268. (Advanced reading on Mixed Methods SNA in Education).
21st May 2025: Understanding Multilevel Analysis: Exploring Data Beyond Averages
Wednesday 21st May 2025
12pm
Dr Janice Kim
This seminar introduces multilevel analysis, a statistical method used to analyse data with hierarchical structures, like students nested within schools. Designed for graduate students and educational researchers, we will explore the basics of multilevel modelling, why it matters, and how it can provide deeper insights beyond traditional methods.
Recommended reading
Tarling, R. (2009) Statistical Modelling for Social Researchers. London: Sage.
Snijders, T. and Bosker, R. (2012) Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modelling (2nd Edition). London: Sage.
Gelman & Hill (2009) Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. Cambridge: CUP.
Hox, J., Moerbeek, M., & Van de Schoot, R. (2017). Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications. Routledge.
About the speaker
Janice Kim is a Lecturer in Education at the School of Education, University of Glasgow. Her research interests lie at the intersection of education policy, skill development, and sustainable development. Specifically, she explores how education policies, reforms, and practices influence child development, learning outcomes, and educational trajectories. Her research aims to inform policy decisions that address educational inequalities and improve school effectiveness in both high-income and low-/middle-income countries. Her areas of expertise include early childhood development and education, teacher professional development, education technology, education governance and finance, and the application of quantitative methods in education. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge and has over a decade of professional experience in international organizations, including the World Bank and OECD, and national government bodies.
18th June 2025: An Introduction to Grounded Theory
Wednesday 18th June 2025
12pm
Professor Clive Dimmock
Grounded theory (GT) is a well-accepted qualitative research approach for doctoral studies and beyond. Originating in the 1960s, it has been modified in recent decades. Given the limited time of the session, the aim will be to provide an introduction and outline to GT; it will also show why grounded theory is ideal for doctoral study by contributing to theory development. An explanation of the main features of GT and the methodological steps in employing it will be given. The main forms of data collection and analysis, including open, axial and selective coding will be outlined. Appropriate examples will be given where possible within the time available.
Recommended reading
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory. London: Sage.
Dimmock, C. & Lam, M. (2012). Grounded theory research. In A.R.J. Briggs, M. Coleman, & M. Morrison (Eds.). Research methods in Educational Leadership and Management, (pp.188-204). London: Sage.
Strauss A. and Corbin J. (1990) Basics of qualitative research. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage
Strauss A. and Corbin J. (1994) Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp.273-285). Beverley Hills, CA: Sage
About the speaker
Clive Dimmock is Professor of Leadership and Professional Learning in the School of Education, Glasgow University. His interest include - educational reform in Asian education systems, leader and teacher professional development, and school improvement. He has supervised doctoral students in the UK, Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam) and Australia, many of whom have adopted grounded theory.